The Khazars were a Turkic-Mongolian people who had an empire in Southern Russia. In 741 AD they converted to Judaism for political reasons, to distinguish themselves from rival Christian and Muslim empires. In 1016 AD the Russians conquered the Khazars but could not assimilate them because of their adherence to the primitive Babylonian Talmud, which creates "a world of its own," characterized by "magic, incantations, miraculous cures and interpretations of dreams." (Graetz's History of the Jews (1893) Vol. II, p.631)